CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge will likely hear a preliminary injunction motion July 25 by Virginia Senate Democratic leaders to keep Ken Cuccinelli from sitting on the next UVA Board of Visitors meeting. That word from the counsel representing the plaintiffs. A July 2 special meeting “to discuss a faculty resignation matter” was supposed to happen virtually but was cancelled at the last second for a reason UVA spokesperson Bethanie Glover termed “it was no longer needed”. However, there’s been no further information of what that meeting was supposed to be about, nor if Ken Cuccinelli was going to sit in it or not. The Governor’s Office and State Attorney General Jason Miyares have opined Cuccinelli, and seven other Governor Youngkin appointees as members of George Mason and VMI boards that the Senate Privileges and Election Committee denied confirmation t0, can continue to serve until there’s been a full floor session in which they could be considered.

While UVA’s next Board of Visitors meeting is not until September 11, and VMI’s next meeting is not set but usually happens sometime in mid-September, the motion notes GMU’s next meeting is July 31. The plaintiffs are requesting the preliminary injunction hearing before that GMU meeting date.

The motion contends “simply put, the Refused Appointees’ nominations died in committee, just like countless other legislative proposals.”

“The Constitution of Virginia provides that an appointee becomes immediately ineligible to serve once ‘the General Assembly shall have refused to confirm his appointment.’ This constitutional prohibition is essential to enforce Virginia’s separation of powers: while an appointee generally may begin to serve before the General Assembly has taken up his or her nomination, if a legislative proposal to confirm the nomination has failed, the General Assembly has “refused to confirm” the appointee, and he or she becomes constitutionally ineligible to serve.”

Cuccinelli served in the June 4-6 Board of Visitors meetings, but that was before the Senate committee decision.